Discovery of remote storage services and associated applications

ABSTRACT

A discovery application may obtain, from a remote storage system configured to host storage structures, first data that identifies relationships among the storage structures. The discovery application may generate, based on the first data, a mapping of the storage structures, store the mapping as one or more configuration items, and provide, to the remote storage system, instructions configured to cause the remote storage system to notify the discovery application of modification events associated with the storage structures. The discovery application may receive, from the remote storage system, a notification of a modification event associated with a particular storage structure of the storage structures and, in response, obtain, from the remote storage system, second data that identifies a modification to the particular storage structure. The discovery application may modify the mapping based on the second data and store the modified mapping by updating the one or more configuration items.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of and claims priority to U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 16/251,701, filed Jan. 18, 2019, which is herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

Computing devices, software applications, software services, databases,and other computing resources that make up a computer network may bediscovered and the relationships therebetween may be mapped. Theseelements of the network, as well as the relationships, may be stored asconfiguration items in a database. The stored configuration items maylater be retrieved and used to generate a visualization of a state orarrangement of these elements within the managed network. Discovering acomputing device, database, software application, software service, orother computing resource involves developing software processes that arecapable of interacting with the devices, databases, applications, orservices in order to gather information needed for detection,classification, and/or identification thereof.

SUMMARY

A remote computing system may provide a storage system and computationalresources on behalf of a managed network. The storage system may includea database system that provides various databases and a file storagesystem that provides containers for storage of files. The databases andcontainers may be collectively referred to as storage structures. Thecomputing resources may provide for execution of various services orsoftware functions that may access, interact with, and execute inresponse to changes in the storage structures. In some implementations,these services or software functions may be assigned computing resourceson an as-needed basis (e.g., in response to a client device transmittinga request for execution thereof).

Since these storage structures and services are provided by the remotecomputing system it may be difficult to maintain an accurate andup-to-date mapping thereof. A discovery application may need to beconfigured to communicate with the remote computing system to obtain,using the communication interfaces provided thereby, information togenerate the mapping of the storage structures and services.Additionally, as the storage structures, services, and/or relationshipstherebetween are modified, a mapping generated at an earlier time may bestale or out-of-date. Thus, the discovery application may continually orperiodically update the mapping to keep it consistent with the actualstate of the remote computing system.

One way to keep the mapping up-to-date may involve the discoveryapplication periodically polling the remote computing system to identifyany modification made to the storage structures and/or services.However, this approach may consume computing resources and networkbandwidth, making it undesirable in some circumstances. For example,when relying on polling, discovery application may consume computingresources and network bandwidth even when no modifications have beenmade to the storage structures and the mapping thus does not needupdating. Accordingly, rather than polling the remote computing systemfor updates, the discovery application may be configured to requestnotification of modification events from the remote computing system.This may allow the discovery application to update the mapping when aspecific storage structure or service is modified without wastingcomputing resources and network bandwidth when no modifications havebeen made.

To that end, the discovery application may first obtain, from a remotestorage system of the remote computing system, first data thatidentifies the storage structures provided thereby. The first data mayidentify, for example, attributes of the storage structures,relationship between the storage structures and services, andrelationships that each of the storage structure has with other storagestructures. The discovery application may then generate and store amapping of these storage structures. This initial mapping may define thestorage structures and services that are to be monitored formodifications.

The discovery application may request that the remote storage systemgenerate and transmit, to the discovery application, notifications ofmodification events that take place on remote storage system. Amodification event may include additions, deletions, or changes of aparticular storage structure or the contents thereof. The request sentby the discovery application may specify, for example, specific storagestructures (e.g., all storage structures identified by the first data)to be monitored for modification events and a subset of possiblemodification events to be monitored for. In response to this request,the remote storage system may dedicate one or more services tomonitoring the specified storage structures for the specifiedmodification events.

In one example, the one or more services may monitor one or more logfiles that contain a history of operations carried out on the storagestructures. A subset of these operations may represent modificationevents. The one or more services may generate a notification when theone or more log files indicate one or more of the specified modificationevents. The remote storage system may transmit the notification thediscovery application by the remote storage service when a particularstorage structure is modified. The notification may be provided to auniform resource locator (URL) that addresses the discovery application,and may identify the specific storage structures that have undergone amodification event.

Based on receiving the notification, the discovery application may beconfigured to obtain, from the remote storage system, second data thatindicates the modifications made to the particular storage structure.Notably, in obtaining the second data, the discovery application mayrequest, from the remote storage system, information that described themodification to the particular storage structure, but might not requestinformation regarding storage structures that remain unchanged.Accordingly, the discovery application might not dedicate computingresources and network bandwidth to obtaining information that is alreadyknown and has not been modified by the modification event.

Based on the second data, the discovery application may generate anupdated mapping of the remote storage systems and the storage structuresprovided thereby. Specifically, the discovery application may updateaspects of the original mapping for which the second data indicated oneor more changes. In some cases, the discovery application may beconfigured to batch the operations related to updating the mapping. Forexample, when notifications are received at above a particular thresholdfrequency, rather than updating the mapping for independently for eachnotification, the discovery application may be configured to aggregate aplurality of notifications and periodically obtain second data thatindicates each of the modifications associated with the plurality ofnotifications.

Accordingly, a first example embodiment involves a computing system thatincludes a configuration management database (CMDB) disposed within acomputational instance of a remote network management platform. Thecomputational instance is associated with a managed network. A remotestorage system is configured to host storage structures on behalf of themanaged network. The computing system also involves a discoveryapplication configured to perform operations. The operations includedetermining an entry point for the remote storage system, and obtaining,from the remote storage system and by way of the entry point, first datathat identifies relationships among the storage structures. Theoperations also include generating, based on the first data, a mappingof the storage structures, and storing, in the CMDB, the mapping as oneor more configuration items. The operations additionally includeproviding, to the remote storage system, instructions configured tocause the remote storage system to notify the discovery application ofmodification events associated with the storage structures. Theoperations further include receiving, from the remote storage system, anotification of a modification event associated with a particularstorage structure of the storage structures and, in response toreceiving the notification, obtaining, from the remote storage systemand by way of the entry point, second data that identifies amodification to the particular storage structure. The operations yetfurther include modifying the mapping based on the second data toindicate the modification to the particular storage structure, andstoring the modified mapping in the CMDB by updating the one or moreconfiguration items.

In a second example embodiment a method includes determining an entrypoint for a remote storage system configured to host storage structureson behalf of a managed network and obtaining, from the remote storagesystem and by way of the entry point, first data that identifiesrelationships among the storage structures. The method also includesgenerating, based on the first data, a mapping of the storage structuresand storing, in a CMDB disposed within a computational instance of aremote network management platform, the mapping as one or moreconfiguration items. The computational instance is associated with themanaged network. The method additionally includes providing, to theremote storage system, instructions configured to cause the remotestorage system to provide notifications of modification eventsassociated with the storage structures. The method further includesreceiving, from the remote storage system, a notification of amodification event associated with a particular storage structure of thestorage structures and, in response to receiving the notification,obtaining, from the remote storage system and by way of the entry point,second data that identifies a modification to the particular storagestructure. The method yet further includes modifying the mapping basedon the second data to indicate the modification to the particularstorage structure, and storing the modified mapping in the CMDB byupdating the one or more configuration items.

In a third example embodiment, an article of manufacture may include anon-transitory computer-readable medium, having stored thereon programinstructions that, upon execution by a computing system, cause thecomputing system to perform operations in accordance with the secondexample embodiment.

In a fourth example embodiment, a computing system may include at leastone processor, as well as memory and program instructions. The programinstructions may be stored in the memory, and upon execution by the atleast one processor, cause the computing system to perform operations inaccordance with the second example embodiment.

In a fifth example embodiment, a system may include various means forcarrying out each of the operations of the second example embodiment.

These, as well as other embodiments, aspects, advantages, andalternatives, will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the artby reading the following detailed description, with reference whereappropriate to the accompanying drawings. Further, this summary andother descriptions and figures provided herein are intended toillustrate embodiments by way of example only and, as such, thatnumerous variations are possible. For instance, structural elements andprocess steps can be rearranged, combined, distributed, eliminated, orotherwise changed, while remaining within the scope of the embodimentsas claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic drawing of a computing device, inaccordance with example embodiments.

FIG. 2 illustrates a schematic drawing of a server device cluster, inaccordance with example embodiments.

FIG. 3 depicts a remote network management architecture, in accordancewith example embodiments.

FIG. 4 depicts a communication environment involving a remote networkmanagement architecture, in accordance with example embodiments.

FIG. 5A depicts another communication environment involving a remotenetwork management architecture, in accordance with example embodiments.

FIG. 5B is a flow chart, in accordance with example embodiments.

FIG. 6 illustrates a remote computing system, in accordance with exampleembodiments.

FIG. 7 is a message flow diagram, in accordance with exampleembodiments.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart, in accordance with example embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Example methods, devices, and systems are described herein. It should beunderstood that the words “example” and “exemplary” are used herein tomean “serving as an example, instance, or illustration.” Any embodimentor feature described herein as being an “example” or “exemplary” is notnecessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over otherembodiments or features unless stated as such. Thus, other embodimentscan be utilized and other changes can be made without departing from thescope of the subject matter presented herein.

Accordingly, the example embodiments described herein are not meant tobe limiting. It will be readily understood that the aspects of thepresent disclosure, as generally described herein, and illustrated inthe figures, can be arranged, substituted, combined, separated, anddesigned in a wide variety of different configurations. For example, theseparation of features into “client” and “server” components may occurin a number of ways.

Further, unless context suggests otherwise, the features illustrated ineach of the figures may be used in combination with one another. Thus,the figures should be generally viewed as component aspects of one ormore overall embodiments, with the understanding that not allillustrated features are necessary for each embodiment.

Additionally, any enumeration of elements, blocks, or steps in thisspecification or the claims is for purposes of clarity. Thus, suchenumeration should not be interpreted to require or imply that theseelements, blocks, or steps adhere to a particular arrangement or arecarried out in a particular order.

I. INTRODUCTION

A large enterprise is a complex entity with many interrelatedoperations. Some of these are found across the enterprise, such as humanresources (HR), supply chain, information technology (IT), and finance.However, each enterprise also has its own unique operations that provideessential capabilities and/or create competitive advantages.

To support widely-implemented operations, enterprises typically useoff-the-shelf software applications, such as customer relationshipmanagement (CRM) and human capital management (HCM) packages. However,they may also need custom software applications to meet their own uniquerequirements. A large enterprise often has dozens or hundreds of thesecustom software applications. Nonetheless, the advantages provided bythe embodiments herein are not limited to large enterprises and may beapplicable to an enterprise, or any other type of organization, of anysize.

Many such software applications are developed by individual departmentswithin the enterprise. These range from simple spreadsheets tocustom-built software tools and databases. But the proliferation ofsiloed custom software applications has numerous disadvantages. Itnegatively impacts an enterprise's ability to run and grow itsoperations, innovate, and meet regulatory requirements. The enterprisemay find it difficult to integrate, streamline and enhance itsoperations due to lack of a single system that unifies its subsystemsand data.

To efficiently create custom applications, enterprises would benefitfrom a remotely-hosted application platform that eliminates unnecessarydevelopment complexity. The goal of such a platform would be to reducetime-consuming, repetitive application development tasks so thatsoftware engineers and individuals in other roles can focus ondeveloping unique, high-value features.

In order to achieve this goal, the concept of Application Platform as aService (aPaaS) is introduced, to intelligently automate workflowsthroughout the enterprise. An aPaaS system is hosted remotely from theenterprise, but may access data, applications, and services within theenterprise by way of secure connections. Such an aPaaS system may have anumber of advantageous capabilities and characteristics. Theseadvantages and characteristics may be able to improve the enterprise'soperations and workflow for IT, HR, CRM, customer service, applicationdevelopment, and security.

The aPaaS system may support development and execution ofmodel-view-controller (MVC) applications. MVC applications divide theirfunctionality into three interconnected parts (model, view, andcontroller) in order to isolate representations of information from themanner in which the information is presented to the user, therebyallowing for efficient code reuse and parallel development. Theseapplications may be web-based, and offer create, read, update, delete(CRUD) capabilities. This allows new applications to be built on acommon application infrastructure.

The aPaaS system may support standardized application components, suchas a standardized set of widgets for graphical user interface (GUI)development. In this way, applications built using the aPaaS system havea common look and feel. Other software components and modules may bestandardized as well. In some cases, this look and feel can be brandedor skinned with an enterprise's custom logos and/or color schemes.

The aPaaS system may support the ability to configure the behavior ofapplications using metadata. This allows application behaviors to berapidly adapted to meet specific needs. Such an approach reducesdevelopment time and increases flexibility. Further, the aPaaS systemmay support GUI tools that facilitate metadata creation and management,thus reducing errors in the metadata.

The aPaaS system may support clearly-defined interfaces betweenapplications, so that software developers can avoid unwantedinter-application dependencies. Thus, the aPaaS system may implement aservice layer in which persistent state information and other data arestored.

The aPaaS system may support a rich set of integration features so thatthe applications thereon can interact with legacy applications andthird-party applications. For instance, the aPaaS system may support acustom employee-onboarding system that integrates with legacy HR, IT,and accounting systems.

The aPaaS system may support enterprise-grade security. Furthermore,since the aPaaS system may be remotely hosted, it should also utilizesecurity procedures when it interacts with systems in the enterprise orthird-party networks and services hosted outside of the enterprise. Forexample, the aPaaS system may be configured to share data amongst theenterprise and other parties to detect and identify common securitythreats.

Other features, functionality, and advantages of an aPaaS system mayexist. This description is for purpose of example and is not intended tobe limiting.

As an example of the aPaaS development process, a software developer maybe tasked to create a new application using the aPaaS system. First, thedeveloper may define the data model, which specifies the types of datathat the application uses and the relationships therebetween. Then, viaa GUI of the aPaaS system, the developer enters (e.g., uploads) the datamodel. The aPaaS system automatically creates all of the correspondingdatabase tables, fields, and relationships, which can then be accessedvia an object-oriented services layer.

In addition, the aPaaS system can also build a fully-functional MVCapplication with client-side interfaces and server-side CRUD logic. Thisgenerated application may serve as the basis of further development forthe user. Advantageously, the developer does not have to spend a largeamount of time on basic application functionality. Further, since theapplication may be web-based, it can be accessed from anyInternet-enabled client device. Alternatively or additionally, a localcopy of the application may be able to be accessed, for instance, whenInternet service is not available.

The aPaaS system may also support a rich set of pre-definedfunctionality that can be added to applications. These features includesupport for searching, email, templating, workflow design, reporting,analytics, social media, scripting, mobile-friendly output, andcustomized GUIs.

The following embodiments describe architectural and functional aspectsof example aPaaS systems, as well as the features and advantagesthereof.

II. EXAMPLE COMPUTING DEVICES AND CLOUD-BASED COMPUTING ENVIRONMENTS

FIG. 1 is a simplified block diagram exemplifying a computing device100, illustrating some of the components that could be included in acomputing device arranged to operate in accordance with the embodimentsherein. Computing device 100 could be a client device (e.g., a deviceactively operated by a user), a server device (e.g., a device thatprovides computational services to client devices), or some other typeof computational platform. Some server devices may operate as clientdevices from time to time in order to perform particular operations, andsome client devices may incorporate server features.

In this example, computing device 100 includes processor 102, memory104, network interface 106, and an input/output unit 108, all of whichmay be coupled by a system bus 110 or a similar mechanism. In someembodiments, computing device 100 may include other components and/orperipheral devices (e.g., detachable storage, printers, and so on).

Processor 102 may be one or more of any type of computer processingelement, such as a central processing unit (CPU), a co-processor (e.g.,a mathematics, graphics, or encryption co-processor), a digital signalprocessor (DSP), a network processor, and/or a form of integratedcircuit or controller that performs processor operations. In some cases,processor 102 may be one or more single-core processors. In other cases,processor 102 may be one or more multi-core processors with multipleindependent processing units. Processor 102 may also include registermemory for temporarily storing instructions being executed and relateddata, as well as cache memory for temporarily storing recently-usedinstructions and data.

Memory 104 may be any form of computer-usable memory, including but notlimited to random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), andnon-volatile memory (e.g., flash memory, hard disk drives, solid statedrives, compact discs (CDs), digital video discs (DVDs), and/or tapestorage). Thus, memory 104 represents both main memory units, as well aslong-term storage. Other types of memory may include biological memory.

Memory 104 may store program instructions and/or data on which programinstructions may operate. By way of example, memory 104 may store theseprogram instructions on a non-transitory, computer-readable medium, suchthat the instructions are executable by processor 102 to carry out anyof the methods, processes, or operations disclosed in this specificationor the accompanying drawings.

As shown in FIG. 1, memory 104 may include firmware 104A, kernel 104B,and/or applications 104C. Firmware 104A may be program code used to bootor otherwise initiate some or all of computing device 100. Kernel 104Bmay be an operating system, including modules for memory management,scheduling and management of processes, input/output, and communication.Kernel 104B may also include device drivers that allow the operatingsystem to communicate with the hardware modules (e.g., memory units,networking interfaces, ports, and busses), of computing device 100.Applications 104C may be one or more user-space software programs, suchas web browsers or email clients, as well as any software libraries usedby these programs. Memory 104 may also store data used by these andother programs and applications.

Network interface 106 may take the form of one or more wirelineinterfaces, such as Ethernet (e.g., Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, andso on). Network interface 106 may also support communication over one ormore non-Ethernet media, such as coaxial cables or power lines, or overwide-area media, such as Synchronous Optical Networking (SONET) ordigital subscriber line (DSL) technologies. Network interface 106 mayadditionally take the form of one or more wireless interfaces, such asIEEE 802.11 (Wifi), BLUETOOTH®, global positioning system (GPS), or awide-area wireless interface. However, other forms of physical layerinterfaces and other types of standard or proprietary communicationprotocols may be used over network interface 106. Furthermore, networkinterface 106 may comprise multiple physical interfaces. For instance,some embodiments of computing device 100 may include Ethernet,BLUETOOTH®, and Wifi interfaces.

Input/output unit 108 may facilitate user and peripheral deviceinteraction with computing device 100. Input/output unit 108 may includeone or more types of input devices, such as a keyboard, a mouse, a touchscreen, and so on. Similarly, input/output unit 108 may include one ormore types of output devices, such as a screen, monitor, printer, and/orone or more light emitting diodes (LEDs). Additionally or alternatively,computing device 100 may communicate with other devices using auniversal serial bus (USB) or high-definition multimedia interface(HDMI) port interface, for example.

In some embodiments, one or more computing devices like computing device100 may be deployed to support an aPaaS architecture. The exact physicallocation, connectivity, and configuration of these computing devices maybe unknown and/or unimportant to client devices. Accordingly, thecomputing devices may be referred to as “cloud-based” devices that maybe housed at various remote data center locations.

FIG. 2 depicts a cloud-based server cluster 200 in accordance withexample embodiments. In FIG. 2, operations of a computing device (e.g.,computing device 100) may be distributed between server devices 202,data storage 204, and routers 206, all of which may be connected bylocal cluster network 208. The number of server devices 202, datastorages 204, and routers 206 in server cluster 200 may depend on thecomputing task(s) and/or applications assigned to server cluster 200.

For example, server devices 202 can be configured to perform variouscomputing tasks of computing device 100. Thus, computing tasks can bedistributed among one or more of server devices 202. To the extent thatthese computing tasks can be performed in parallel, such a distributionof tasks may reduce the total time to complete these tasks and return aresult. For purpose of simplicity, both server cluster 200 andindividual server devices 202 may be referred to as a “server device.”This nomenclature should be understood to imply that one or moredistinct server devices, data storage devices, and cluster routers maybe involved in server device operations.

Data storage 204 may be data storage arrays that include drive arraycontrollers configured to manage read and write access to groups of harddisk drives and/or solid state drives. The drive array controllers,alone or in conjunction with server devices 202, may also be configuredto manage backup or redundant copies of the data stored in data storage204 to protect against drive failures or other types of failures thatprevent one or more of server devices 202 from accessing units of datastorage 204. Other types of memory aside from drives may be used.

Routers 206 may include networking equipment configured to provideinternal and external communications for server cluster 200. Forexample, routers 206 may include one or more packet-switching and/orrouting devices (including switches and/or gateways) configured toprovide (i) network communications between server devices 202 and datastorage 204 via local cluster network 208, and/or (ii) networkcommunications between the server cluster 200 and other devices viacommunication link 210 to network 212.

Additionally, the configuration of routers 206 can be based at least inpart on the data communication requirements of server devices 202 anddata storage 204, the latency and throughput of the local clusternetwork 208, the latency, throughput, and cost of communication link210, and/or other factors that may contribute to the cost, speed,fault-tolerance, resiliency, efficiency and/or other design goals of thesystem architecture.

As a possible example, data storage 204 may include any form ofdatabase, such as a structured query language (SQL) database. Varioustypes of data structures may store the information in such a database,including but not limited to tables, arrays, lists, trees, and tuples.Furthermore, any databases in data storage 204 may be monolithic ordistributed across multiple physical devices.

Server devices 202 may be configured to transmit data to and receivedata from data storage 204. This transmission and retrieval may take theform of SQL queries or other types of database queries, and the outputof such queries, respectively. Additional text, images, video, and/oraudio may be included as well. Furthermore, server devices 202 mayorganize the received data into web page representations. Such arepresentation may take the form of a markup language, such as thehypertext markup language (HTML), the extensible markup language (XML),or some other standardized or proprietary format. Moreover, serverdevices 202 may have the capability of executing various types ofcomputerized scripting languages, such as but not limited to Perl,Python, PHP Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP), Active Server Pages (ASP),JavaScript, and so on. Computer program code written in these languagesmay facilitate the providing of web pages to client devices, as well asclient device interaction with the web pages.

III. EXAMPLE REMOTE NETWORK MANAGEMENT ARCHITECTURE

FIG. 3 depicts a remote network management architecture, in accordancewith example embodiments. This architecture includes three maincomponents, managed network 300, remote network management platform 320,and third-party networks 340, all connected by way of Internet 350.

Managed network 300 may be, for example, an enterprise network used byan entity for computing and communications tasks, as well as storage ofdata. Thus, managed network 300 may include various client devices 302,server devices 304, routers 306, virtual machines 308, firewall 310,and/or proxy servers 312. Client devices 302 may be embodied bycomputing device 100, server devices 304 may be embodied by computingdevice 100 or server cluster 200, and routers 306 may be any type ofrouter, switch, or gateway.

Virtual machines 308 may be embodied by one or more of computing device100 or server cluster 200. In general, a virtual machine is an emulationof a computing system, and mimics the functionality (e.g., processor,memory, and communication resources) of a physical computer. Onephysical computing system, such as server cluster 200, may support up tothousands of individual virtual machines. In some embodiments, virtualmachines 308 may be managed by a centralized server device orapplication that facilitates allocation of physical computing resourcesto individual virtual machines, as well as performance and errorreporting. Enterprises often employ virtual machines in order toallocate computing resources in an efficient, as needed fashion.Providers of virtualized computing systems include VMWARE® andMICROSOFT®.

Firewall 310 may be one or more specialized routers or server devicesthat protect managed network 300 from unauthorized attempts to accessthe devices, applications, and services therein, while allowingauthorized communication that is initiated from managed network 300.Firewall 310 may also provide intrusion detection, web filtering, virusscanning, application-layer gateways, and other applications orservices. In some embodiments not shown in FIG. 3, managed network 300may include one or more virtual private network (VPN) gateways withwhich it communicates with remote network management platform 320 (seebelow).

Managed network 300 may also include one or more proxy servers 312. Anembodiment of proxy servers 312 may be a server device that facilitatescommunication and movement of data between managed network 300, remotenetwork management platform 320, and third-party networks 340. Inparticular, proxy servers 312 may be able to establish and maintainsecure communication sessions with one or more computational instancesof remote network management platform 320. By way of such a session,remote network management platform 320 may be able to discover andmanage aspects of the architecture and configuration of managed network300 and its components. Possibly with the assistance of proxy servers312, remote network management platform 320 may also be able to discoverand manage aspects of third-party networks 340 that are used by managednetwork 300.

Firewalls, such as firewall 310, typically deny all communicationsessions that are incoming by way of Internet 350, unless such a sessionwas ultimately initiated from behind the firewall (i.e., from a deviceon managed network 300) or the firewall has been explicitly configuredto support the session. By placing proxy servers 312 behind firewall 310(e.g., within managed network 300 and protected by firewall 310), proxyservers 312 may be able to initiate these communication sessions throughfirewall 310. Thus, firewall 310 might not have to be specificallyconfigured to support incoming sessions from remote network managementplatform 320, thereby avoiding potential security risks to managednetwork 300.

In some cases, managed network 300 may consist of a few devices and asmall number of networks. In other deployments, managed network 300 mayspan multiple physical locations and include hundreds of networks andhundreds of thousands of devices. Thus, the architecture depicted inFIG. 3 is capable of scaling up or down by orders of magnitude.

Furthermore, depending on the size, architecture, and connectivity ofmanaged network 300, a varying number of proxy servers 312 may bedeployed therein. For example, each one of proxy servers 312 may beresponsible for communicating with remote network management platform320 regarding a portion of managed network 300. Alternatively oradditionally, sets of two or more proxy servers may be assigned to sucha portion of managed network 300 for purposes of load balancing,redundancy, and/or high availability.

Remote network management platform 320 is a hosted environment thatprovides aPaaS services to users, particularly to the operators ofmanaged network 300. These services may take the form of web-basedportals, for instance. Thus, a user can securely access remote networkmanagement platform 320 from, for instance, client devices 302, orpotentially from a client device outside of managed network 300. By wayof the web-based portals, users may design, test, and deployapplications, generate reports, view analytics, and perform other tasks.

As shown in FIG. 3, remote network management platform 320 includes fourcomputational instances 322, 324, 326, and 328. Each of these instancesmay represent one or more server devices and/or one or more databasesthat provide a set of web portals, services, and applications (e.g., awholly-functioning aPaaS system) available to a particular customer. Insome cases, a single customer may use multiple computational instances.For example, managed network 300 may be an enterprise customer of remotenetwork management platform 320, and may use computational instances322, 324, and 326. The reason for providing multiple instances to onecustomer is that the customer may wish to independently develop, test,and deploy its applications and services. Thus, computational instance322 may be dedicated to application development related to managednetwork 300, computational instance 324 may be dedicated to testingthese applications, and computational instance 326 may be dedicated tothe live operation of tested applications and services. A computationalinstance may also be referred to as a hosted instance, a remoteinstance, a customer instance, or by some other designation. Anyapplication deployed onto a computational instance may be a scopedapplication, in that its access to databases within the computationalinstance can be restricted to certain elements therein (e.g., one ormore particular database tables or particular rows with one or moredatabase tables).

For purpose of clarity, the disclosure herein refers to the physicalhardware, software, and arrangement thereof as a “computationalinstance.” Note that users may colloquially refer to the graphical userinterfaces provided thereby as “instances.” But unless it is definedotherwise herein, a “computational instance” is a computing systemdisposed within remote network management platform 320.

The multi-instance architecture of remote network management platform320 is in contrast to conventional multi-tenant architectures, overwhich multi-instance architectures have several advantages. Inmulti-tenant architectures, data from different customers (e.g.,enterprises) are comingled in a single database. While these customers'data are separate from one another, the separation is enforced by thesoftware that operates the single database. As a consequence, a securitybreach in this system may impact all customers' data, creatingadditional risk, especially for entities subject to governmental,healthcare, and/or financial regulation. Furthermore, any databaseoperations that impact one customer will likely impact all customerssharing that database. Thus, if there is an outage due to hardware orsoftware errors, this outage affects all such customers. Likewise, ifthe database is to be upgraded to meet the needs of one customer, itwill be unavailable to all customers during the upgrade process. Often,such maintenance windows will be long, due to the size of the shareddatabase.

In contrast, the multi-instance architecture provides each customer withits own database in a dedicated computing instance. This preventscomingling of customer data, and allows each instance to beindependently managed. For example, when one customer's instanceexperiences an outage due to errors or an upgrade, other computationalinstances are not impacted. Maintenance down time is limited because thedatabase only contains one customer's data. Further, the simpler designof the multi-instance architecture allows redundant copies of eachcustomer database and instance to be deployed in a geographicallydiverse fashion. This facilitates high availability, where the liveversion of the customer's instance can be moved when faults are detectedor maintenance is being performed.

In some embodiments, remote network management platform 320 may includeone or more central instances, controlled by the entity that operatesthis platform. Like a computational instance, a central instance mayinclude some number of physical or virtual servers and database devices.Such a central instance may serve as a repository for data that can beshared amongst at least some of the computational instances. Forinstance, definitions of common security threats that could occur on thecomputational instances, software packages that are commonly discoveredon the computational instances, and/or an application store forapplications that can be deployed to the computational instances mayreside in a central instance. Computational instances may communicatewith central instances by way of well-defined interfaces in order toobtain this data.

In order to support multiple computational instances in an efficientfashion, remote network management platform 320 may implement aplurality of these instances on a single hardware platform. For example,when the aPaaS system is implemented on a server cluster such as servercluster 200, it may operate a virtual machine that dedicates varyingamounts of computational, storage, and communication resources toinstances. But full virtualization of server cluster 200 might not benecessary, and other mechanisms may be used to separate instances. Insome examples, each instance may have a dedicated account and one ormore dedicated databases on server cluster 200. Alternatively,computational instance 322 may span multiple physical devices.

In some cases, a single server cluster of remote network managementplatform 320 may support multiple independent enterprises. Furthermore,as described below, remote network management platform 320 may includemultiple server clusters deployed in geographically diverse data centersin order to facilitate load balancing, redundancy, and/or highavailability.

Third-party networks 340 may be remote server devices (e.g., a pluralityof server clusters such as server cluster 200) that can be used foroutsourced computational, data storage, communication, and servicehosting operations. These servers may be virtualized (i.e., the serversmay be virtual machines). Examples of third-party networks 340 mayinclude AMAZON WEB SERVICES® and MICROSOFT® Azure. Like remote networkmanagement platform 320, multiple server clusters supporting third-partynetworks 340 may be deployed at geographically diverse locations forpurposes of load balancing, redundancy, and/or high availability.

Managed network 300 may use one or more of third-party networks 340 todeploy applications and services to its clients and customers. Forinstance, if managed network 300 provides online music streamingservices, third-party networks 340 may store the music files and provideweb interface and streaming capabilities. In this way, the enterprise ofmanaged network 300 does not have to build and maintain its own serversfor these operations.

Remote network management platform 320 may include modules thatintegrate with third-party networks 340 to expose virtual machines andmanaged services therein to managed network 300. The modules may allowusers to request virtual resources and provide flexible reporting forthird-party networks 340. In order to establish this functionality, auser from managed network 300 might first establish an account withthird-party networks 340, and request a set of associated resources.Then, the user may enter the account information into the appropriatemodules of remote network management platform 320. These modules maythen automatically discover the manageable resources in the account, andalso provide reports related to usage, performance, and billing.

Internet 350 may represent a portion of the global Internet. However,Internet 350 may alternatively represent a different type of network,such as a private wide-area or local-area packet-switched network.

FIG. 4 further illustrates the communication environment between managednetwork 300 and computational instance 322, and introduces additionalfeatures and alternative embodiments. In FIG. 4, computational instance322 is replicated across data centers 400A and 400B. These data centersmay be geographically distant from one another, perhaps in differentcities or different countries. Each data center includes supportequipment that facilitates communication with managed network 300, aswell as remote users.

In data center 400A, network traffic to and from external devices flowseither through VPN gateway 402A or firewall 404A. VPN gateway 402A maybe peered with VPN gateway 412 of managed network 300 by way of asecurity protocol such as Internet Protocol Security (IPSEC) orTransport Layer Security (TLS). Firewall 404A may be configured to allowaccess from authorized users, such as user 414 and remote user 416, andto deny access to unauthorized users. By way of firewall 404A, theseusers may access computational instance 322, and possibly othercomputational instances. Load balancer 406A may be used to distributetraffic amongst one or more physical or virtual server devices that hostcomputational instance 322. Load balancer 406A may simplify user accessby hiding the internal configuration of data center 400A, (e.g.,computational instance 322) from client devices. For instance, ifcomputational instance 322 includes multiple physical or virtualcomputing devices that share access to multiple databases, load balancer406A may distribute network traffic and processing tasks across thesecomputing devices and databases so that no one computing device ordatabase is significantly busier than the others. In some embodiments,computational instance 322 may include VPN gateway 402A, firewall 404A,and load balancer 406A.

Data center 400B may include its own versions of the components in datacenter 400A. Thus, VPN gateway 402B, firewall 404B, and load balancer406B may perform the same or similar operations as VPN gateway 402A,firewall 404A, and load balancer 406A, respectively. Further, by way ofreal-time or near-real-time database replication and/or otheroperations, computational instance 322 may exist simultaneously in datacenters 400A and 400B.

Data centers 400A and 400B as shown in FIG. 4 may facilitate redundancyand high availability. In the configuration of FIG. 4, data center 400Ais active and data center 400B is passive. Thus, data center 400A isserving all traffic to and from managed network 300, while the versionof computational instance 322 in data center 400B is being updated innear-real-time. Other configurations, such as one in which both datacenters are active, may be supported.

Should data center 400A fail in some fashion or otherwise becomeunavailable to users, data center 400B can take over as the active datacenter. For example, domain name system (DNS) servers that associate adomain name of computational instance 322 with one or more InternetProtocol (IP) addresses of data center 400A may re-associate the domainname with one or more IP addresses of data center 400B. After thisre-association completes (which may take less than one second or severalseconds), users may access computational instance 322 by way of datacenter 400B.

FIG. 4 also illustrates a possible configuration of managed network 300.As noted above, proxy servers 312 and user 414 may access computationalinstance 322 through firewall 310. Proxy servers 312 may also accessconfiguration items 410. In FIG. 4, configuration items 410 may refer toany or all of client devices 302, server devices 304, routers 306, andvirtual machines 308, any applications or services executing thereon, aswell as relationships between devices, applications, and services. Thus,the term “configuration items” may be shorthand for any physical orvirtual device, or any application or service remotely discoverable ormanaged by computational instance 322, or relationships betweendiscovered devices, applications, and services. Configuration items maybe represented in a configuration management database (CMDB) ofcomputational instance 322.

As noted above, VPN gateway 412 may provide a dedicated VPN to VPNgateway 402A. Such a VPN may be helpful when there is a significantamount of traffic between managed network 300 and computational instance322, or security policies otherwise suggest or require use of a VPNbetween these sites. In some embodiments, any device in managed network300 and/or computational instance 322 that directly communicates via theVPN is assigned a public IP address. Other devices in managed network300 and/or computational instance 322 may be assigned private IPaddresses (e.g., IP addresses selected from the 10.0.0.0-10.255.255.255or 192.168.0.0-192.168.255.255 ranges, represented in shorthand assubnets 10.0.0.0/8 and 192.168.0.0/16, respectively).

IV. EXAMPLE DEVICE, APPLICATION, AND SERVICE DISCOVERY

In order for remote network management platform 320 to administer thedevices, applications, and services of managed network 300, remotenetwork management platform 320 may first determine what devices arepresent in managed network 300, the configurations and operationalstatuses of these devices, and the applications and services provided bythe devices, and well as the relationships between discovered devices,applications, and services. As noted above, each device, application,service, and relationship may be referred to as a configuration item.The process of defining configuration items within managed network 300is referred to as discovery, and may be facilitated at least in part byproxy servers 312.

For purpose of the embodiments herein, an “application” may refer to oneor more processes, threads, programs, client modules, server modules, orany other software that executes on a device or group of devices. A“service” may refer to a high-level capability provided by multipleapplications executing on one or more devices working in conjunctionwith one another. For example, a high-level web service may involvemultiple web application server threads executing on one device andaccessing information from a database application that executes onanother device.

FIG. 5A provides a logical depiction of how configuration items can bediscovered, as well as how information related to discoveredconfiguration items can be stored. For sake of simplicity, remotenetwork management platform 320, third-party networks 340, and Internet350 are not shown.

In FIG. 5A, CMDB 500 and task list 502 are stored within computationalinstance 322. Computational instance 322 may transmit discovery commandsto proxy servers 312. In response, proxy servers 312 may transmit probesto various devices, applications, and services in managed network 300.These devices, applications, and services may transmit responses toproxy servers 312, and proxy servers 312 may then provide informationregarding discovered configuration items to CMDB 500 for storagetherein. Configuration items stored in CMDB 500 represent theenvironment of managed network 300.

Task list 502 represents a list of activities that proxy servers 312 areto perform on behalf of computational instance 322. As discovery takesplace, task list 502 is populated. Proxy servers 312 repeatedly querytask list 502, obtain the next task therein, and perform this task untiltask list 502 is empty or another stopping condition has been reached.

To facilitate discovery, proxy servers 312 may be configured withinformation regarding one or more subnets in managed network 300 thatare reachable by way of proxy servers 312. For instance, proxy servers312 may be given the IP address range 192.168.0/24 as a subnet. Then,computational instance 322 may store this information in CMDB 500 andplace tasks in task list 502 for discovery of devices at each of theseaddresses.

FIG. 5A also depicts devices, applications, and services in managednetwork 300 as configuration items 504, 506, 508, 510, and 512. As notedabove, these configuration items represent a set of physical and/orvirtual devices (e.g., client devices, server devices, routers, orvirtual machines), applications executing thereon (e.g., web servers,email servers, databases, or storage arrays), relationshipstherebetween, as well as services that involve multiple individualconfiguration items.

Placing the tasks in task list 502 may trigger or otherwise cause proxyservers 312 to begin discovery. Alternatively or additionally, discoverymay be manually triggered or automatically triggered based on triggeringevents (e.g., discovery may automatically begin once per day at aparticular time).

In general, discovery may proceed in four logical phases: scanning,classification, identification, and exploration. Each phase of discoveryinvolves various types of probe messages being transmitted by proxyservers 312 to one or more devices in managed network 300. The responsesto these probes may be received and processed by proxy servers 312, andrepresentations thereof may be transmitted to CMDB 500. Thus, each phasecan result in more configuration items being discovered and stored inCMDB 500.

In the scanning phase, proxy servers 312 may probe each IP address inthe specified range of IP addresses for open Transmission ControlProtocol (TCP) and/or User Datagram Protocol (UDP) ports to determinethe general type of device. The presence of such open ports at an IPaddress may indicate that a particular application is operating on thedevice that is assigned the IP address, which in turn may identify theoperating system used by the device. For example, if TCP port 135 isopen, then the device is likely executing a WINDOWS® operating system.Similarly, if TCP port 22 is open, then the device is likely executing aUNIX® operating system, such as LINUX®. If UDP port 161 is open, thenthe device may be able to be further identified through the SimpleNetwork Management Protocol (SNMP). Other possibilities exist. Once thepresence of a device at a particular IP address and its open ports havebeen discovered, these configuration items are saved in CMDB 500.

In the classification phase, proxy servers 312 may further probe eachdiscovered device to determine the version of its operating system. Theprobes used for a particular device are based on information gatheredabout the devices during the scanning phase. For example, if a device isfound with TCP port 22 open, a set of UNIX®-specific probes may be used.Likewise, if a device is found with TCP port 135 open, a set ofWINDOWS®-specific probes may be used. For either case, an appropriateset of tasks may be placed in task list 502 for proxy servers 312 tocarry out. These tasks may result in proxy servers 312 logging on, orotherwise accessing information from the particular device. Forinstance, if TCP port 22 is open, proxy servers 312 may be instructed toinitiate a Secure Shell (SSH) connection to the particular device andobtain information about the operating system thereon from particularlocations in the file system. Based on this information, the operatingsystem may be determined. As an example, a UNIX® device with TCP port 22open may be classified as AIX®, HPUX, LINUX®, MACOS®, or SOLARIS®. Thisclassification information may be stored as one or more configurationitems in CMDB 500.

In the identification phase, proxy servers 312 may determine specificdetails about a classified device. The probes used during this phase maybe based on information gathered about the particular devices during theclassification phase. For example, if a device was classified as LINUX®,a set of LINUX®-specific probes may be used. Likewise, if a device wasclassified as WINDOWS® 2012, as a set of WINDOWS®-2012-specific probesmay be used. As was the case for the classification phase, anappropriate set of tasks may be placed in task list 502 for proxyservers 312 to carry out. These tasks may result in proxy servers 312reading information from the particular device, such as basicinput/output system (BIOS) information, serial numbers, networkinterface information, media access control address(es) assigned tothese network interface(s), IP address(es) used by the particular deviceand so on. This identification information may be stored as one or moreconfiguration items in CMDB 500.

In the exploration phase, proxy servers 312 may determine furtherdetails about the operational state of a classified device. The probesused during this phase may be based on information gathered about theparticular devices during the classification phase and/or theidentification phase. Again, an appropriate set of tasks may be placedin task list 502 for proxy servers 312 to carry out. These tasks mayresult in proxy servers 312 reading additional information from theparticular device, such as processor information, memory information,lists of running processes (applications), and so on. Once more, thediscovered information may be stored as one or more configuration itemsin CMDB 500.

Running discovery on a network device, such as a router, may utilizeSNMP. Instead of or in addition to determining a list of runningprocesses or other application-related information, discovery maydetermine additional subnets known to the router and the operationalstate of the router's network interfaces (e.g., active, inactive, queuelength, number of packets dropped, etc.). The IP addresses of theadditional subnets may be candidates for further discovery procedures.Thus, discovery may progress iteratively or recursively.

Once discovery completes, a snapshot representation of each discovereddevice, application, and service is available in CMDB 500. For example,after discovery, operating system version, hardware configuration andnetwork configuration details for client devices, server devices, androuters in managed network 300, as well as applications executingthereon, may be stored. This collected information may be presented to auser in various ways to allow the user to view the hardware compositionand operational status of devices, as well as the characteristics ofservices that span multiple devices and applications.

Furthermore, CMDB 500 may include entries regarding dependencies andrelationships between configuration items. More specifically, anapplication that is executing on a particular server device, as well asthe services that rely on this application, may be represented as suchin CMDB 500. For instance, suppose that a database application isexecuting on a server device, and that this database application is usedby a new employee onboarding service as well as a payroll service. Thus,if the server device is taken out of operation for maintenance, it isclear that the employee onboarding service and payroll service will beimpacted. Likewise, the dependencies and relationships betweenconfiguration items may be able to represent the services impacted whena particular router fails.

In general, dependencies and relationships between configuration itemsmay be displayed on a web-based interface and represented in ahierarchical fashion. Thus, adding, changing, or removing suchdependencies and relationships may be accomplished by way of thisinterface.

Furthermore, users from managed network 300 may develop workflows thatallow certain coordinated activities to take place across multiplediscovered devices. For instance, an IT workflow might allow the user tochange the common administrator password to all discovered LINUX®devices in a single operation.

In order for discovery to take place in the manner described above,proxy servers 312, CMDB 500, and/or one or more credential stores may beconfigured with credentials for one or more of the devices to bediscovered. Credentials may include any type of information needed inorder to access the devices. These may include userid/password pairs,certificates, and so on. In some embodiments, these credentials may bestored in encrypted fields of CMDB 500. Proxy servers 312 may containthe decryption key for the credentials so that proxy servers 312 can usethese credentials to log on to or otherwise access devices beingdiscovered.

The discovery process is depicted as a flow chart in FIG. 5B. At block520, the task list in the computational instance is populated, forinstance, with a range of IP addresses. At block 522, the scanning phasetakes place. Thus, the proxy servers probe the IP addresses for devicesusing these IP addresses, and attempt to determine the operating systemsthat are executing on these devices. At block 524, the classificationphase takes place. The proxy servers attempt to determine the operatingsystem version of the discovered devices. At block 526, theidentification phase takes place. The proxy servers attempt to determinethe hardware and/or software configuration of the discovered devices. Atblock 528, the exploration phase takes place. The proxy servers attemptto determine the operational state and applications executing on thediscovered devices. At block 530, further editing of the configurationitems representing the discovered devices and applications may takeplace. This editing may be automated and/or manual in nature.

The blocks represented in FIG. 5B are for purpose of example. Discoverymay be a highly configurable procedure that can have more or fewerphases, and the operations of each phase may vary. In some cases, one ormore phases may be customized, or may otherwise deviate from theexemplary descriptions above.

V. CMDB IDENTIFICATION RULES AND RECONCILIATION

A CMDB, such as CMDB 500, provides a repository of configuration items,and when properly provisioned, can take on a key role in higher-layerapplications deployed within or involving a computational instance.These applications may relate to enterprise IT service management,operations management, asset management, configuration management,compliance, and so on.

For example, an IT service management application may use information inthe CMDB to determine applications and services that may be impacted bya component (e.g., a server device) that has malfunctioned, crashed, oris heavily loaded. Likewise, an asset management application may useinformation in the CMDB to determine which hardware and/or softwarecomponents are being used to support particular enterprise applications.As a consequence of the importance of the CMDB, it is desirable for theinformation stored therein to be accurate, consistent, and up to date.

A CMDB may be populated in various ways. As discussed above, a discoveryprocedure may automatically store information related to configurationitems in the CMDB. However, a CMDB can also be populated, as a whole orin part, by manual entry, configuration files, and third-party datasources. Given that multiple data sources may be able to update the CMDBat any time, it is possible that one data source may overwrite entriesof another data source. Also, two data sources may each create slightlydifferent entries for the same configuration item, resulting in a CMDBcontaining duplicate data. When either of these occurrences takes place,they can cause the health and utility of the CMDB to be reduced.

In order to mitigate this situation, these data sources might not writeconfiguration items directly to the CMDB. Instead, they may write to anidentification and reconciliation application programming interface(API). This API may use a set of configurable identification rules thatcan be used to uniquely identify configuration items and determinewhether and how they are written to the CMDB.

In general, an identification rule specifies a set of configuration itemattributes that can be used for this unique identification.Identification rules may also have priorities so that rules with higherpriorities are considered before rules with lower priorities.Additionally, a rule may be independent, in that the rule identifiesconfiguration items independently of other configuration items.Alternatively, the rule may be dependent, in that the rule first uses ametadata rule to identify a dependent configuration item.

Metadata rules describe which other configuration items are containedwithin a particular configuration item, or the host on which aparticular configuration item is deployed. For example, a networkdirectory service configuration item may contain a domain controllerconfiguration item, while a web server application configuration itemmay be hosted on a server device configuration item.

A goal of each identification rule is to use a combination of attributesthat can unambiguously distinguish a configuration item from all otherconfiguration items, and is expected not to change during the lifetimeof the configuration item. Some possible attributes for an exampleserver device may include serial number, location, operating system,operating system version, memory capacity, and so on. If a rulespecifies attributes that do not uniquely identify the configurationitem, then multiple components may be represented as the sameconfiguration item in the CMDB. Also, if a rule specifies attributesthat change for a particular configuration item, duplicate configurationitems may be created.

Thus, when a data source provides information regarding a configurationitem to the identification and reconciliation API, the API may attemptto match the information with one or more rules. If a match is found,the configuration item is written to the CMDB. If a match is not found,the configuration item may be held for further analysis.

Configuration item reconciliation procedures may be used to ensure thatonly authoritative data sources are allowed to overwrite configurationitem data in the CMDB. This reconciliation may also be rules-based. Forinstance, a reconciliation rule may specify that a particular datasource is authoritative for a particular configuration item type and setof attributes. Then, the identification and reconciliation API will onlypermit this authoritative data source to write to the particularconfiguration item, and writes from unauthorized data sources may beprevented. Thus, the authorized data source becomes the single source oftruth regarding the particular configuration item. In some cases, anunauthorized data source may be allowed to write to a configuration itemif it is creating the configuration item or the attributes to which itis writing are empty.

Additionally, multiple data sources may be authoritative for the sameconfiguration item or attributes thereof. To avoid ambiguities, thesedata sources may be assigned precedences that are taken into accountduring the writing of configuration items. For example, a secondaryauthorized data source may be able to write to a configuration item'sattribute until a primary authorized data source writes to thisattribute. Afterward, further writes to the attribute by the secondaryauthorized data source may be prevented.

In some cases, duplicate configuration items may be automaticallydetected by reconciliation procedures or in another fashion. Theseconfiguration items may be flagged for manual de-duplication.

VI. EXAMPLE REMOTE COMPUTING SYSTEM

FIG. 6 illustrates an example remote computing system 600. Remotecomputing system 600 may include remote storage system 602 and computingresources 604. Remote computing system 600 may represent one example ofthird-party network 340. For example, remote computing system 600 may bea computing system of AMAZON WEB SERVICES®, which provides on-demandcloud computing and storage platforms. Remote storage system 602 mayinclude database system 606 and file storage system 608, each providingrespective storage structures. In one example, remote computing system600 may provide the resources therein to various computing devices onbehalf of managed network 300. That is, remote computing system 600 maydedicate portions of remote storage system 602 (e.g., one or morestorage structures) and computing resources 604 (e.g., one or moreservices) to managed network 300 and/or computing devices associatedtherewith.

In order to quantify the extent of usage of resources of remotecomputing system 600 by managed network 300, a discovery application maybe configured to discover and map the resources that are utilized bymanaged network 300. However, since remote computing system 600 may be acloud-based computing and storage platform, the discovery applicationmight not be able to directly explore the computing devices (e.g., parsefiles thereon and monitor the software processes executing thereon) thatmake up remote computing system 600 as part of the discovery and mappingprocess. Instead, the discovery application may need to utilize theapplication programming interfaces and/or command line interfacesprovided by remote computing system 600 to collect the informationneeded to discover and map the resources therein.

Additionally, as the resources provided by remote computing system 600change over time (e.g., new storage structures are added or old storagestructures are deleted), the discovery application may need to repeatthe discovery and mapping operations to maintain an up-to-date versionof these resources. However, repeating the discovery and mappingoperations may utilize a large amount of computing power and time,especially when the amount of resources used by managed network 300 islarge. Accordingly, the discovery application may instead cause remotecomputing system 600, or aspects thereof, to generate notifications thatindicate specific changes made to the resources. The discoveryapplication may then gather additional information concerning thoseresources that have been changed or modified since a last mapping ofremote computing system 600. The discovery application might not,however, re-discover or re-map aspects of remote computing system 600that have not been modified.

Returning to FIG. 6, database system 606 may include a plurality ofdatabases, including database 610 and database 620, which are examplesof the storage structures provided on behalf of managed network 300. Inan example implementation, databases 610 and 620 may be relationaldatabases configured to store data in tables arranged into rows andcolumns, with a unique key identifying each row. Databases 610 and 620may thus use a structured query language (SQL) for querying andmaintenance thereof. In another example implementation, databases 610and 620 may represent “not only SQL” (NoSQL) databases configured tostore data in a plurality of additional formats or arrangements. Forexample, databases 610 and 620 may store data as tables organized bycolumns (rather than rows), as key-value pairs (e.g., where each valuestored in the database is assigned a corresponding key), as documents(e.g., JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) or XML files), or as graphstructures (e.g., where data is stored as nodes that are interconnectedby edges). Database system 606 may thus represent, for example,DYNAMODB® provided by AMAZON WEB SERVICES®.

Each of databases 610 and 620 may be replicated among one or more serverclusters. For example, a first copy of database 610 may be stored onserver cluster 612 and a second copy of database 610 may be stored onserver cluster 614. Similarly, a first copy of database 620 may bestored on server cluster 622 and a second copy of database 620 may bestored on server cluster 624. The first and second copies may beperiodically or continually synchronized to keep the data stored thereinconsistent. Such replication may provide data redundancy in the event ofone of the server clusters becoming temporarily unavailable and/orpermanently losing its respective copy of the database.

Server clusters 612, 614, 622, and 624 may begeographically-distributed, allowing for client devices to access theserver cluster that is geographically closest to the client device (orat least closer than one or more other server clusters), thus reducingthe transmission time of communications between the client device andthe database. In one example, server clusters 612 and 622 may be locatedin a first data center at a first geographic location and serverclusters 614 and 624 may be located in a second data center at a secondgeographic location different from the first geographic location. Othergeographic distributions are possible.

Remote storage system 602 may also include file storage system 608. Filestorage system 608 may include a plurality of file storage containers,including container 630 and container 640, which are additional examplesof the storage structures provided on behalf of managed network 300.Containers 630 and 640 may represent storage space assigned to managednetwork 300 and may be configured to store therein a plurality ofdifferent file types. Each file stored in a container may be addressableusing a corresponding unique identifier. For example, the uniqueidentifier may be a random alphanumeric string assigned to the file byfile storage system 608 or a filename assigned to the file by the clientdevice requesting storage thereof.

Much like databases 610 and 620, containers 630 and 640 may bereplicated among respective server clusters. Namely, container 630 maybe replicated among server clusters 632 and 634 and container 640 may bereplicated among server clusters 642 and 644. Server clusters 632, 634,642, and 644 may be geographically distributed to provide redundancy andreduced access times, much like server clusters 612, 614, 622, and 624.

Accordingly, remote storage system 602 may allow managed network 300 tooffload storage structure allocation and management to remote computingsystem 600. Remote storage system 602 may additionally help reduce usageof storage and computational resources on managed network 300, as remotestorage system 602 may reduce or eliminate the need for computingdevices in managed network 300 to be used for storage and management ofstorage allocation.

Remote computing system 600 may further include computing resources 604,which may include a plurality of services, including services 650, 652,654, and 656 (i.e., services 650-656). Services 650-656 may be usedon-demand by various client devices associated with managed network 300,by other services provided by remote computing system 600, and/or byremote storage system 602. Services 650-656 may each take on variousforms and provide functions, features, operations, and/or components forthe benefit of managed network 300. Accordingly, services 650-656 mayalternatively be referred to as software functions. Services 650-656 mayinclude or may provide aspects of web-based applications, such as ane-mail service, a service for building web-based applications, and/or aservice for testing web-based applications, among other possibilities.Services 650-656 may also include computing resources provided bycomputing devices that make up remote computing system 600.

Each service may be associated with respective code that defines atleast part of the functions, features, operations, and/or components ofthe service. Namely, service 650 may be associated with code 660,service 652 may be associated with code 662, service 654 may beassociated with code 664, and service 656 may be associated with code666. In one example, one or more of code 660-666 may be uploaded toremote computing system 600 by way of a computing device associated withmanaged network 300 such that code 660-666 is remotely hosted andexecutable by computing resources 604 on behalf of managed network 300.Computing resources 604 may represent, for example, the AWS LAMBDA®platform provided by AMAZON WEB SERVICES®, while services 650-656 may bevarious AWS LAMBDA® functions.

Thus, services 650-656 may allow managed network 300 to offloadmanagement and resource allocation for execution of code 660-666 toremote computing system 600. Moreover, services 650-656 may help reduceusage of computational resources on managed network 300, as services650-656 may eliminate the need to store and/or execute code 660-666 oncomputing devices in managed network 300.

Code 660-666 could take various forms. For example, code 660-666 may beor may otherwise include source code, which may be a collection ofcomputer instructions written in one or more programming languages asplain text. In another example, code 660-666 may be or may otherwiseinclude object code, which may be statements or instructions in acomputer language as produced by a compiler. In yet another example,code 660-666 may be or may otherwise include one or more configurationfiles, which may be files that specify parameters and/or initialsettings for a computer program. In yet another example, code 660-666may be or may otherwise include one or more log files, which may befiles that include records of events and/or communications that occur inassociation with certain software. In yet another example, code 660-666may be or may otherwise include one or more environmental variables,which may be dynamically-named variables that are mapped to otherprogram variable(s) and that affects execution of program(s) using code660-666 in accordance with this mapping. Other examples are alsopossible.

Computing resources 604 may be assigned to execute services 650-656 ondemand, which effectively allows managed network 300 to use computingresources of remote computing system 600 on an as-needed basis forexecuting remotely hosted code 660-666. Given that computing resources604 are assigned on demand, remote computing system 600 might not haveany specific computing devices dedicated to execution of services650-656. Accordingly, code 660-666 may be considered to be a “serverlessresource.”

Services 650-656 may be executed in response to one or more triggerevents, which may indicate the need or demand to allocate computingresources to one or more of services 650-656. An example trigger eventmay involve a client device transmitting, to service 650, a request forservice 650 (or a software program of which service 650 is a subset) toexecute and provide a corresponding response, so that the client devicereceives certain information and/or carries out operations as a resultof execution of service 650. Thus, the trigger events may be initiatedby entities outside of remote computing system 600, including, forexample, a software application that is associated with managed network300 or a software application that is associated with remote networkmanagement platform 320, among other possibilities.

Trigger events may also be initiated by entities inside of remotecomputing system 600. For example, trigger events may be initiated by asoftware application that is associated with remote computing system 600or another one of the services hosted by computing resources 604, amongother possibilities. For example, the trigger event may involve amodification of one or more of storage structures 610, 620, 630, or 640.Namely, service 650 may be invoked based on or in response to amodification of database 610, service 652 may be invoked based on or inresponse to a modification of database 620, service 654 may be invokedbased on or in response to a modification of container 630, and service656 may be invoked based on or in response to a modification ofcontainer 640, as indicated by the dashed lines extending therebetween.

In one implementation, remote storage system 602 may be configured togenerate a log file of operations carried out on or by each of storagestructures 610, 620, 630, and 640. In the context of AMAZON WEBSERVICES®, for example, the log file may be referred to as a stream(e.g., a DYNAMODB® stream). Services 650-656, respectively, may monitorthese log files for one or more predetermined operations (e.g.,operations that indicate modifications to the respective storagestructures). Detection of the one or more predetermined operations inthe log file may cause the corresponding service to execute one or morecorresponding functions or operations. In one example, a modification todatabase 610 may cause service 650 to generate and transmit anotification of this modification to one or more other services orcomputing devices. In another example, an accumulation of apredetermined number of operations (e.g., 10,000) in the log fileassociated with container 630 may cause service 652 to store a copy ofthe file in persistent storage (e.g., in a container of file storagesystem 608).

Notably, each of services 650-656 may also be configured to access andmodify the contents of storage structures 610, 620, 630, and 640. Forexample, when service 654 is an email service, service 654 may accessdatabase 620 to retrieve and provide emails stored in database 620.Thus, some operations associated with storage structures 610, 620, 630,and 640 may cause execution of services 650-656 and/or some of services650-656 may access data stored in storage structures 610, 620, 630, and640.

VII. EXAMPLE DISCOVERY AND MAPPING OF REMOTE COMPUTING SYSTEMS

FIG. 7 illustrates example operations for discovery and service mappingof various aspects of remote computing system 600. Namely, theseoperations may be carried out to discover remote storage system 602,database system 606, file storage system 608, and/or storage structures610, 620, 630, and 640. In some cases, these operations may additionallydiscover computing resources 604 and/or services 650-656. Further, theseoperations may determine a mapping that indicates the relationshipsbetween remote storage system 602, database system 606, file storagesystem 608, storage structures 610, 620, 630, and 640, computingresources 604, services 650-656, and/or any other aspects of remotecomputing system 600 discussed with respect to FIG. 6.

The discovery and service mapping operations may be carried out orfacilitated by discovery application 700. Discovery application 700 maybe provided by proxy servers 312 in managed network 300, computationalinstance 322 associated with managed network 300, or a combinationthereof. That is, in some implementations, the operations of discoveryapplication 700 may be distributed among managed network 300 and remotenetwork management platform 320. Discovery application 700 may use CMDB702 to store the discovered and mapped aspects of remote computingsystem 600 as one or more configuration items. CMDB 702 may be disposedwithin computational instance 322. Alternatively, CMDB 702 may bedisposed within managed network 300 or distributed among managed network300 and one or more computational instances of remote network managementplatform 320.

Discovery application 700 may be configured to initiate the discoveryand mapping by determining an entry point for remote storage system 602,as indicated by block 708. The entry point may include, for example, auniform resource locator (URL) used to access or otherwise associatedwith remote storage system 602, database system 606, file storage system608, or one or more of storage structures 610, 620, 630, and/or 640. Inthe case of DYNAMODB®, the entry point for database system 606 may behttps://dynamodb.<aws-region>.amazonaws.com, where <aws-region>indicates the geographic area in which database 610 or 620 are hosted.In the case of AMAZON SIMPLE STORAGE SERVICE®, the entry point for filestorage system 608 may behttps://<container-name>.s3.<aws-region>.amazonaws.com, where<aws-region> indicates the geographic area in which container 630 or 640are hosted and <container-name> indicates one of containers 630 or 640.Other URL schemes are possible. In another example, the entry point mayinclude an identifier of one or more host computing devices assigned tothe respective storage structure sought to be discovered and a nameassigned to the storage structure (e.g., an AMAZON WEB SERVICES®resource name).

The entry point may be determined by receiving, by way of a userinterface associated with discovery application 700, input thatidentifies the entry point. In another example, the entry point may bedetermined by identifying an association between the entry point and oneor more services or applications. For example, while performingdiscovery and/or mapping of computing resources 604 and/or services650-656, discovery application 700 may identify a URL by way of whichone or more of these resources or services accesses remote storagesystem 602. Discovery application 700 may subsequently use this URL todiscover and map aspects of remote storage system 602.

Discovery application 700 may additionally be provided with or otherwiseobtain access credentials for communicating with remote storage system602. In one example, these credentials may take the form of an accesstoken (e.g., a Java® Web Token (JWT)) provided to discovery application700 by remote computing system 600 (e.g., an authorization serverthereof).

Based on or in response to determining the entry point at block 708,discovery application 700 may be configured to transmit, to remotestorage system 602, a request for first data regarding storagestructures provided by remote storage system 602, as indicated by arrow710. The first data may identify relationships among the storagestructures provided by remote storage system 602.

For example, the request at arrow 710 may be directed to database system606 and the first data may thus indicate databases 610 and 620 as thestorage structures, how databases 610 and 620 are related (e.g., onetable in database 610 references another table in database 620), thereplication of databases 610 and 620 among server clusters 612, 614,622, and 624, and the geographic distribution of server clusters 612,614, 622, and 624, among other aspects. In some implementations, thefirst data may also indicate additional attributes of database system606 and/or databases 610 and 620. For example, the first data mayindicate a name of the provider of remote computing system 600 (e.g.,AMAZON WEB SERVICES®), a name of database system 606 (e.g., DYNAMODB®),the names of databases 610 and 620, times at which databases 610 and/or620 were created, whether automatic scaling (e.g., automatic allocationof additional computing resources to handle requested throughput) isenabled for reads and/or writes of databases 610 and/or 620, whetherencryption is enabled (and the type thereof) for databases 610 and/or620, sizes of databases 610 and/or 620 and/or tables or objects therein,and an amount of allotted throughput (e.g., reads and writes allottedper unit of time) consumed by traffic to databases 610 and/or 620, amongother attributes. The first data may also indicate any other aspectsshown in or described with respect to FIG. 6.

In another example, the request at arrow 710 may be directed to filestorage system 608. The first data may thus indicate container 630 and640 as the storage structures, the replication of container 630 and 640among server clusters 632, 634, 642, and 644, and the geographicdistribution of server clusters 632, 634, 642, and 644, among otheraspects. In some implementations, the first data may also indicateadditional attributes of file storage system 608 and/or containers 630and 640. For example, the first data may indicate a name of the providerof remote computing system 600 (e.g., AMAZON WEB SERVICES®), a name offile storage system 608 (e.g., AMAZON SIMPLE STORAGE SERVICE®), thenames of container 630 and 640, times at which containers 630 and 640were created, names of owners of containers 630 and 640, whetherautomatic scaling (e.g., automatic allocation of additional computingresources to handle requested throughput) is enabled for reads and/orwrites of containers 630 and/or 640, whether encryption is enabled (andthe type thereof) for containers 630 and/or 640, sizes of containers 630and/or 640 and/or the files stored therein, and an amount of allottedstorage consumed by files stored in containers 630 and/or 640, amongother attributes. Again, the first data may also indicate any otheraspects shown in or described with respect to FIG. 6.

The first data may additionally identify relationships among the storagestructures provided by remote storage system 602 and services 650-656.For example, the first data may indicate that service 650 accessesdatabase 610 or that operations on (e.g., modifications to) database 610invoke execution of service 650, as indicated by the corresponding arrowin FIG. 6. Similarly, the first data may also indicate that services652, 654, and 656 access container 630, database 620, and container 640,respectively, or that operations on container 630, database 620, andcontainer 640 invoke execution of services 652, 654, and 656,respectively, as indicated by the corresponding arrows in FIG. 6.

The request at arrow 710 may be transmitted to remote storage system 602by way of the entry point identified at block 708. In oneimplementation, discovery application 700 may be configured to use arepresentational state transfer (REST) application programming interface(API) provided by remote storage system 602 to transmit the request atarrow 710. In another implementation, discovery application 700 may beconfigured to use a command line interface provided by remote storagemanagement system 602 to transmit the request at arrow 710. Notably, therequest for first data may include multiple different REST API calls orcommand line commands (not shown) that collectively cause remote storagesystem 602 to obtain and provide the first data to discovery application700. That is, different REST API calls or command line commands may beconfigured to cause remote storage system 602 to generate differentportions of the first data.

Accordingly, based on or in response to receiving the request at arrow710, remote storage system 602 may be configured to generate and/orretrieve the first data, as indicated by block 712. Generating the firstdata may involve accessing one or more configuration files, log files,or other records that contain the first data or aspects thereof. Forexample, determining the replication of storage structure 610 amongserver clusters 612 and 614 may involve accessing configuration dataassociated with database 610 to retrieve an indication of thisreplication. In another example, determining a relationship betweenstorage structures 610, 620, 630, and 640 and services 650-656 mayinvolve parsing code 660-666 to identify the storage structures that aparticular service accesses or operates on.

Based on or in response to generating and/or retrieving the first dataat block 712, remote storage system 602 may be configured to transmitthe first data to discovery application 700, as indicated by arrow 714.When multiple different commands are involved in obtaining the firstdata, the operations of arrow 710, block 712, and arrow 714 may berepeated multiple times until the complete set of first data isretrieved and transmitted to discovery application 700.

Based on or in response to reception of the first data at arrow 714,discovery application 700 may be configured to generate a mapping of thestorage structures, as indicated by block 716. The mapping may indicatethe storage structures, the attributes associated with each storagestructure, and the relationships therebetween. For example, a visualrepresentation of the mapping may be similar to what is shown in FIG. 6.Namely, the mapping may indicate each storage structure as a parent nodeand each replication thereof as a child node, with the parent nodeconnected to each child node by an edge. For example, database 610 maybe represented by a parent node and the replications thereof to serverclusters 612 and 614 may be represented as child nodes. Each of thesenodes may be associated with the respective attributes correspondingthereto (e.g., database name, database size, geographic location of eachserver cluster, etc.).

Based on or in response to generating the mapping at block 716,discovery application 700 may be configured to request storage of themapping in CMDB 702, as indicated by arrow 718. Based on or in responseto the request at arrow 718, CMDB 702 may be configured to store themapping as one or more configuration items, as indicted by block 720.The stored mapping may be subsequently retrieved from CMDB 702 to allowfor visualization of the various components of remote computing system600 and the relationships therebetween. For example, the configurationitems may be retrieved from CMDB 702, a visual representation of themapping may be generated based thereon, and the mapping may be displayedby way of a user interface. The user interface may allow for interactionwith the mapping to view various aspects thereof. For example, selectionof one of a node represented in the mapping may provide a detailedrepresentation of the attributes associated with this node.

Discovery application 700 may additionally be configured to generate andtransmit, to remote storage system 602, a request for notifications ofmodification events associated with the storage structures identified bythe first data, as indicated by arrow 722. This request may identify aURL associated with discovery application 700 to which the notificationsgenerated by remote storage system 602 are to be addressed.Additionally, in some implementations, the request at arrow 722 mayidentify specific storage structures that remote storage system 602 isto monitor for modification events. In some implementations, theoperations of arrow 722 may be carried out based on or in response tostoring the mapping at block 720. For example, discovery application mayconfigure remote storage system 602 to monitor for and providenotifications of modification events associated with the storagestructures identified by the first data and/or reflected in the mapping.

In other implementations, the operations of arrow 722 may be carried outbased on or in response to a selection (e.g., made by a user) of asubset of the storage structures identified by the first data.Additionally or alternatively, the request for notifications may beprovided to remote storage system 602 manually by way of a userinterface provided thereby. Discovery application 700 may neverthelessfacilitate this operation by identifying the storage structures forwhich notifications are to be provided and identifying the URLs thatremote storage system 602 is to transmit the notifications to, amongother operations.

Remote storage system 602 may be configured to execute a plurality ofoperations on the storage structures provided thereby as part ofmaintaining, modifying, and/or otherwise managing these storagestructures. A subset of these operations may result in the storagestructures being modified, and may thus be referred to as modificationevents. A modification even may include deletion of a storage structure,generation (i.e., creation) of a new storage structure, addition of datato a particular storage structure, deletion of data from the particularstorage structure, update of data stored in the particular storagestructure, and/or association of a storage structure with a service(e.g., service 650) provided by computing resources 604, among otherpossibilities.

By requesting notification of modification events, discovery application700 may avoid periodically polling, re-discovering, and/or re-mappingaspects of remote storage system 602. Notably, when the storagestructures are not modified since the most recent execution of discoveryand mapping operations, such periodic polling, re-discovering, and/orre-mapping, might not identify any changes in the storage structures butmay nevertheless utilize computing resources. Thus, in order to conservecomputing resources, discovery application 700 may instead configureremote storage system 602 to monitor the storage structures thereof formodification events. Discovery application 700 may execute there-discovering and/or re-mapping operations when the storage structuresare modified and may focus these operations on the modified storagestructures while omitting storage structures that have not beenmodified.

Accordingly, based on or in response to reception of the request atarrow 722, remote storage system 602 may be configured to monitor thestorage structures for modification events, as indicated by block 724.For example, a service provided by computing resources 604 may beconfigured to monitor the log file associated with each storagestructure designated at arrow 722 for indications of modificationevents. When a modification event is detected for a particular storagestructure, this or another service may be configured to generate anotification of this modification event, as indicated by block 726. Inother implementations, storage system 602 may provide another mechanismfor generating the notification. For example, remote storage system 602may be configured to generate the notification each time a modificationis made to a respective storage structure without using a log file. Thatis, for example, database system 606 or file storage system 608 may beconfigured to generate the notification as part of executing themodification operation.

Based on or in response to generating the notification at block 726,remote storage system 602 may be configured to transmit, to discoveryapplication 700, the notification, as indicated by arrow 728. In thecase of AMAZON WEB SERVICES®, the notification may be transmitted by wayof the AMAZON SIMPLE NOTIFICATION SERVICE®. Alternatively, an AWSLAMBDA® function may be configured to transmit the notification. Thenotification may include an identifier of the particular storagestructure that has been modified, among other information concerning themodification event.

Thus, based on or in response to reception of the notification at arrow728, discovery application 700 may be configured to transmit, to remotestorage system 602, a request for second data identifying themodification made to the particular storage structure, as indicated byarrow 730. Notably, discovery application 700 might not request dataassociated with storage structures for which a notification of amodification even has not been received (e.g., storage structures thathave not been modified since they were last mapped).

Based on or in response to reception of the request at arrow 730, remotestorage system 602 may be configured to retrieve the second data, asindicate by block 732. The retrieval of the second data at block 732 maybe similar to the retrieval of the first data at block 712. Notably,however, the retrieval of the second data may be directed at storagestructures that have been modified since the mapping was last updated,rather than focusing on all storage structures provided by remotestorage system 602. For example, when database 620 is modified, butdatabase 610, container 630, and container 640 remain unmodified, thesecond data may indicate the relationships and attributes of database620, but might not include commensurate information regarding database610, container 630, and container 640.

Additionally, in some implementations, the second data might reflectonly attributes and relationships that have been changed by themodification event, rather than including both changed and unchangedattributes and relationships for the particular storage structure. Forexample, when container 630 is associated with a new service, butremains otherwise unchanged, the second data might indicate this newrelationship between container 630 and the new service, but might notindicate other unmodified attributes of container 630 or the unmodifiedrelationships between container 630 and other storage structures orservices. The second data may thus indicate aspects of the particularstorage structure that have changed since the last iteration of themapping operations, without also indicating unchanged aspects, therebyconserving computational resources and network bandwidth.

Based on or in response to retrieving the second data at block 732,remote storage system 602 may be configured to transmit the second datato discovery application 700, as indicated by arrow 734. Based on or inresponse to receiving the second data, discovery application 700 may beconfigured to modify the mapping generated at block 716, as indicated byblock 736. Namely, the mapping may be modified to reflect any changes inthe attributes or relationships of the particular storage structureassociated with the modification event of which discovery applicationwas notified at arrow 728. Notably, in order to modify this mapping, themapping may first be retrieved from CMDB 702 (not shown).

In one example, new data may be stored in the particular storagestructure. Accordingly, the mapping may be modified to reflect this newdata by, for example, indicating that the size of the storage structurehas increased or that the number of entries or objects therein hasincreased. In another example, a particular storage structure may bereplicated to an additional server cluster. Accordingly, the mapping maybe modified by generating a new child node for this additional servercluster and connecting the new child node to the parent node of theparticular storage structure. Additionally, the attributes of the newchild node may be assigned the attributes indicated by the second data(e.g., an indication of the geographic region in which this servercluster resides). Other modifications and commensurate changes to themapping are possible.

Based on or in response to modifying the mapping at block 736, discoveryapplication 700 may be configured to request storage of the modifiedmapping, as indicated by arrow 738. Based on or in response to receptionof the request at arrow 738, CMDB 702 may be configured to store themodified mapping by updating the one or more configuration items, asindicated by block 740. Updating the one or more configuration items mayinvolve modifying the configuration items, adding new configurationitems, and/or deleting existing configuration items.

The operations of block 724 through block 740 may be repeated asadditional modification events take place on remote storage system 602.Accordingly, the mapping of the storage structures may be keptup-to-date by modifying the mapping each time a storage structure isactually modified. Notably, the mapping may be kept up-to-date withoutdiscovery application 700 polling remote storage system 602 to determinewhether any storage structures have actually been modified, therebyreducing the amount of computational resources dedicated to maintainingan accurate mapping of the storage structures provided by remote storagesystem 602.

In some implementations, the operations of block 724 through block 740may be repeated periodically rather than being carried out in responseto each new notification of a modification event. For example, when thefrequency of modification events and/or corresponding notifications isabove a particular threshold, discovery application 700 may batch theoperations of block 724 through block 740 to reduce usage of computingresources and network bandwidth. That is, as discovery application 700receives notifications of modification events, discovery application 700may keep a queue of the storage structures that have been modified.Discovery application 700 may then periodically re-discover and/orre-map the storage structures that are in the queue and clear the queuefollowing successful re-mapping.

VIII. EXAMPLE OPERATIONS

FIG. 8 is a flow chart illustrating an example embodiment. The processillustrated by FIG. 8 may be carried out by a computing device, such ascomputing device 100, and/or a cluster of computing devices, such asserver cluster 200. However, the process can be carried out by othertypes of devices or device subsystems. For example, the process could becarried out by a portable computer, such as a laptop or a tablet device.

The embodiments of FIG. 8 may be simplified by the removal of any one ormore of the features shown therein. Further, these embodiments may becombined with features, aspects, and/or implementations of any of theprevious figures or otherwise described herein.

Block 800 may involve determining, by a discovery application, an entrypoint for a remote storage system configured to host storage structureson behalf of a managed network.

Block 802 may involve obtaining, by the discovery application, from theremote storage system, and by way of the entry point, first data thatidentifies relationships among the storage structures.

Block 804 may involve generating, by the discovery application and basedon the first data, a mapping of the storage structures.

Block 806 may involve storing, in a CMDB disposed within a computationalinstance of a remote network management platform, the mapping as one ormore configuration items. The computational instance may be associatedwith the managed network.

Block 808 may involve providing, by the discovery application and to theremote storage system, instructions configured to cause the remotestorage system to notify the discovery application of modificationevents associated with the storage structures.

Block 810 may involve receiving, by the discovery application and fromthe remote storage system, a notification of a modification eventassociated with a particular storage structure of the storagestructures.

Block 812 may involve, in response to receiving the notification,obtaining, by the discovery application, from the remote storage system,and by way of the entry point, second data that identifies amodification to the particular storage structure.

Block 814 may involve modifying, by the discovery application, themapping based on the second data to indicate the modification to theparticular storage structure.

Block 816 may involve storing the modified mapping in the CMDB byupdating the one or more configuration items.

In some embodiments, each respective storage structure of the storagestructures may be replicated among two or moregeographically-distributed server clusters. The first data may indicate,for each respective storage structure, the two or moregeographically-distributed server clusters. Generating the mapping mayinvolve generating, for each respective storage structure, (i) a parentnode representing the respective storage structure and (ii) two or morechild nodes representing the replication of the respective storagestructure among the two or more geographically-distributed serverclusters. The parent node may be connected to each of the two or morechild nodes by respective edges.

In some embodiments, the first data may further identify relationshipsbetween (i) the storage structures and (ii) software functionsexecutable using computing resources provided by the remote storagesystem in response to one or more trigger events associated with thestorage structures.

In some embodiments, the computing resources may be assigned to executethe software functions based on demand for execution thereof.

In some embodiments, the one or more trigger events may include themodification events.

In some embodiments, generating the instructions configured to cause theremote storage system to notify the discovery application ofmodification events associated with the storage structures may involvegenerating a URL that addresses the discovery application. The remotestorage system may be configured to provide notifications of themodification events to the URL.

In some embodiments, the remote storage system may be configured togenerate operational records that identify operations carried out on thestorage structures. The modification events may include a subset of theoperations that performs at least one of (i) changing data stored by thestorage structures, (ii) generating a new storage structure, (iii)deleting one of the storage structures, or (iv) associating one or moreof the storage structures with a software function executable usingcomputing resources provided by the remote storage system in response toone or more trigger events associated with the one or more of thestorage structures.

In some embodiments, the entry point for the remote storage system mayinclude an identifier of one or more host computing devices associatedwith the storage structures and a resource name assigned to the storagestructures.

In some embodiments, the remote storage system may include a databasesystem. The storage structures may include one or more of (i) databasetables organized by rows, (ii) database tables organized by columns,(iii) key-value pairs, (iv) documents, or (v) graph structurescomprising nodes connected by edges. For example, the database systemmay be DYNAMODB® provided by AMAZON WEB SERVICES®.

In some embodiments, the remote storage system may include a filestorage system. The storage structures may include containers configuredto store therein data as one or more objects, wherein each object isaddressable by a key value associated therewith. For example, the filestorage system may be AMAZON SIMPLE STORAGE SERVICE®

In some embodiments, the first data may further identify, for eachrespective storage structure of the storage structures, a plurality ofattributes associated with the respective storage structure. The seconddata may further identify a change in one or more attributes of theplurality of attributes of the particular storage structure. The mappingmay be modified based on the second data to indicate the change in theone or more attributes of the particular storage structure.

IX. CONCLUSION

The present disclosure is not to be limited in terms of the particularembodiments described in this application, which are intended asillustrations of various aspects. Many modifications and variations canbe made without departing from its scope, as will be apparent to thoseskilled in the art. Functionally equivalent methods and apparatuseswithin the scope of the disclosure, in addition to those describedherein, will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the foregoingdescriptions. Such modifications and variations are intended to fallwithin the scope of the appended claims.

The above detailed description describes various features and operationsof the disclosed systems, devices, and methods with reference to theaccompanying figures. The example embodiments described herein and inthe figures are not meant to be limiting. Other embodiments can beutilized, and other changes can be made, without departing from thescope of the subject matter presented herein. It will be readilyunderstood that the aspects of the present disclosure, as generallydescribed herein, and illustrated in the figures, can be arranged,substituted, combined, separated, and designed in a wide variety ofdifferent configurations.

With respect to any or all of the message flow diagrams, scenarios, andflow charts in the figures and as discussed herein, each step, block,and/or communication can represent a processing of information and/or atransmission of information in accordance with example embodiments.Alternative embodiments are included within the scope of these exampleembodiments. In these alternative embodiments, for example, operationsdescribed as steps, blocks, transmissions, communications, requests,responses, and/or messages can be executed out of order from that shownor discussed, including substantially concurrently or in reverse order,depending on the functionality involved. Further, more or fewer blocksand/or operations can be used with any of the message flow diagrams,scenarios, and flow charts discussed herein, and these message flowdiagrams, scenarios, and flow charts can be combined with one another,in part or in whole.

A step or block that represents a processing of information cancorrespond to circuitry that can be configured to perform the specificlogical functions of a herein-described method or technique.Alternatively or additionally, a step or block that represents aprocessing of information can correspond to a module, a segment, or aportion of program code (including related data). The program code caninclude one or more instructions executable by a processor forimplementing specific logical operations or actions in the method ortechnique. The program code and/or related data can be stored on anytype of computer readable medium such as a storage device including RAM,a disk drive, a solid state drive, or another storage medium.

The computer readable medium can also include non-transitory computerreadable media such as computer readable media that store data for shortperiods of time like register memory and processor cache. The computerreadable media can further include non-transitory computer readablemedia that store program code and/or data for longer periods of time.Thus, the computer readable media may include secondary or persistentlong term storage, like ROM, optical or magnetic disks, solid statedrives, compact-disc read only memory (CD-ROM), for example. Thecomputer readable media can also be any other volatile or non-volatilestorage systems. A computer readable medium can be considered a computerreadable storage medium, for example, or a tangible storage device.

Moreover, a step or block that represents one or more informationtransmissions can correspond to information transmissions betweensoftware and/or hardware modules in the same physical device. However,other information transmissions can be between software modules and/orhardware modules in different physical devices.

The particular arrangements shown in the figures should not be viewed aslimiting. It should be understood that other embodiments can includemore or less of each element shown in a given figure. Further, some ofthe illustrated elements can be combined or omitted. Yet further, anexample embodiment can include elements that are not illustrated in thefigures.

While various aspects and embodiments have been disclosed herein, otheraspects and embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art.The various aspects and embodiments disclosed herein are for purpose ofillustration and are not intended to be limiting, with the true scopebeing indicated by the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computing system comprising: a configurationmanagement database (CMDB) containing one or more configuration itemsthat represent storage structures hosted by a remote computing system,wherein each respective storage structure of the storage structures isreplicated among two or more geographically-distributed server clustersof the remote computing system, wherein the one or more configurationitems indicate, for each respective storage structure: (i) a parent noderepresenting the respective storage structure, and (ii) two or morechild nodes representing the replication of the respective storagestructure among the two or more geographically-distributed serverclusters, wherein the parent node is connected to each of the two ormore child nodes by respective edges; and a software applicationconfigured to perform operations comprising: providing, to the remotecomputing system, instructions configured to cause computing resourcesof the remote computing system to execute a software function thatmodifies a particular storage structure of the storage structures;receiving, from the remote computing system, a notification that theparticular storage structure has been modified; in response to receivingthe notification, obtaining, from the remote computing system, data thatidentifies a modification to the particular storage structure; updatingthe one or more configuration items based on the data to indicate themodification to the particular storage structure; and storing, in theCMDB, the one or more configuration items as updated.
 2. The computingsystem of claim 1, wherein the software function modifies the particularstorage structure by: (i) creating the particular storage structure,(ii) deleting the particular storage structure, (iii) modifying datastored in the particular storage structure, or (iv) associating theparticular storage structure with another software function executableusing the computing resources of the remote computing system.
 3. Thecomputing system of claim 1, wherein providing the instructionsconfigured to cause the computing resources of the remote computingsystem to execute the software function comprises: generating ahypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) request that invokes execution of thesoftware function by way of an application programming interface (API);and transmitting the HTTP request to a uniform resource locator (URL)associated with the API.
 4. The computing system of claim 1, wherein theremote computing system includes a database system, and wherein thestorage structures comprise one or more of: (i) database tables of thedatabase system organized by rows, (ii) database tables of the databasesystem organized by columns, (iii) key-value pairs stored in thedatabase system, (iv) documents stored in the database system, or (v)graph structures stored in the database system and comprising nodesconnected by edges.
 5. The computing system of claim 1, wherein theremote computing system comprises a file storage system, and wherein thestorage structures comprise containers configured to store therein dataas one or more objects, wherein each object is addressable by a keyvalue associated therewith.
 6. The computing system of claim 1, whereinthe remote computing system is configured to generate operationalrecords that identify operations carried out on the storage structures,and wherein obtaining data that identifies the modification to theparticular storage structure comprises: transmitting, to the remotecomputing system, a request for a subset of the operational recordsassociated with the particular storage structure; and receiving, fromthe remote computing system, the subset of the operational records. 7.The computing system of claim 1, wherein the one or more configurationitems also represent a mapping between: (i) the storage structures, and(ii) one or more software functions executable by the remote computingsystem.
 8. The computing system of claim 7, wherein the mapping isbetween: (i) the particular storage structure, and (ii) the softwarefunction that modifies the particular storage structure.
 9. Thecomputing system of claim 7, wherein the mapping indicates, for arespective storage structures of the storage structures hosted by theremote computing system, that: (i) the respective storage structure isused by a corresponding software function of the one or more softwarefunctions, or (ii) a modification to the respective storage structuretriggers execution of the corresponding software function.
 10. Thecomputing system of claim 7, wherein the computing resources areassigned to execute the one or more software functions based on demandfor execution thereof.
 11. The computing system of claim 1, wherein theoperations further comprise: generating a uniform resource locator (URL)that addresses the software application and to which the remotecomputing system is to provide notifications of events occurring on theremote computing system, wherein the notification is received by thesoftware application in response to a transmission from the remotecomputing system addressed to the URL.
 12. The computing system of claim1, wherein the operations further comprise: determining an entry pointfor the remote computing system; obtaining, from the remote computingsystem and by way of the entry point, additional data that representsattributes of the storage structures; generating, based on theadditional data, the one or more configuration items to represent thestorage structures and the attributes thereof; and storing, in the CMDB,the one or more configuration items.
 13. The computing system of claim12, wherein the entry point for the remote computing system comprises anidentifier of one or more host computing devices associated with thestorage structures and one or more resource names assigned to thestorage structures.
 14. A computer-implemented method comprising:providing, by a software application and to a remote computing system,instructions configured to cause computing resources of the remotecomputing system to execute a software function that modifies aparticular storage structure of storage structures hosted by the remotecomputing system, wherein the storage structures are represented by oneor more configuration items stored in a configuration managementdatabase (CMDB), wherein each respective storage structure of thestorage structures is replicated among two or moregeographically-distributed server clusters of the remote computingsystem, wherein the one or more configuration items indicate, for eachrespective storage structure: (i) a parent node representing therespective storage structure, and (ii) two or more child nodesrepresenting the replication of the respective storage structure amongthe two or more geographically-distributed server clusters, wherein theparent node is connected to each of the two or more child nodes byrespective edges; receiving, by the software application and from theremote computing system, a notification that the particular storagestructure has been modified; in response to receiving the notification,obtaining, by the software application and from the remote computingsystem, data that identifies a modification to the particular storagestructure; updating, by the software application, the one or moreconfiguration items based on the data to indicate the modification tothe particular storage structure; and storing, in the CMDB, the one ormore configuration items as updated.
 15. The computer-implemented methodof claim 14, wherein the software function modifies the particularstorage structure by: (i) creating the particular storage structure,(ii) deleting the particular storage structure, (iii) modifying datastored in the particular storage structure, or (iv) associating theparticular storage structure with another software function executableusing the computing resources of the remote computing system.
 16. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 14, wherein providing theinstructions configured to cause the computing resources of the remotecomputing system to execute the software function comprises: generatinga hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) request that invokes execution ofthe software function by way of an application programming interface(API); and transmitting the HTTP request to a uniform resource locator(URL) associated with the API.
 17. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 14, further comprising: generating a uniform resource locator(URL) that addresses the software application and to which the remotecomputing system is to provide notifications of events occurring on theremote computing system, wherein the notification is received by thesoftware application in response to a transmission from the remotecomputing system addressed to the URL.
 18. An article of manufactureincluding a non-transitory computer-readable medium, having storedthereon program instructions that, upon execution by a computing system,cause the computing system to perform operations comprising: providing,to a remote computing system, instructions configured to cause computingresources of the remote computing system to execute a software functionthat modifies a particular storage structure of storage structureshosted by the remote computing system, wherein the storage structuresare represented by one or more configuration items stored in aconfiguration management database (CMDB), wherein each respectivestorage structure of the storage structures is replicated among two ormore geographically-distributed server clusters of the remote computingsystem, wherein the one or more configuration items indicate, for eachrespective storage structure: (i) a parent node representing therespective storage structure, and (ii) two or more child nodesrepresenting the replication of the respective storage structure amongthe two or more geographically-distributed server clusters, wherein theparent node is connected to each of the two or more child nodes byrespective edges; receiving, from the remote computing system, anotification that the particular storage structure has been modified; inresponse to receiving the notification, obtaining, from the remotecomputing system, data that identifies a modification to the particularstorage structure; updating the one or more configuration items based onthe data to indicate the modification to the particular storagestructure; and storing, in the CMDB, the one or more configuration itemsas updated.